In a letter to shareholders published yesterday evening, Tesla confirmed that the hotly anticipated Model X will, in fact, launch in September. While there were already rumors pointing to a September launch floating around the web, it’s reassuring to hear the news directly from Tesla given the company’s history of perpetually pushing back launch dates.
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The pertinent portion of the shareholder letter reads as follows:
As we prepare to launch Model X in September, we are building more validation vehicles, executing final engineering and testing work, enabling our new manufacturing equipment and finalizing arrangements with our suppliers. We have been producing release candidate Model X bodies in our new body shop equipped with more than 500 robots as we fine-tune and validate our production processes.
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This is certainly welcome news for eager Model X buyers who have been looking forward to Tesla’s crossover SUV for some time now. If you recall, the first release window for the Model X was scheduled to begin in 2014.
Subsequently, that window kept on getting pushed back for two main reasons. First, Tesla wanted to focus on improving the Model S while simultaneously expanding the vehicle’s availability across the globe. Second, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on a few occasions that designing the Model X was fraught with engineering challenges, with the vehicle’s falcon wing doors reportedly being the most difficult feature to completely nail down.
“It would be quite easy to make a handful of production units [of the Model X] but that doesn’t really move the needle,” Musk said late last November. “The question is at what point can we scale production to make a good quality car… It’s hard to get there. It’s hard to engineer and it’s hard to produce.”
Musk of course later added that the Model X is going to be “something quite special.”
Keep in mind, though, that while deliveries of the Model X will finally begin in September, the long waiting list for Tesla’s electric SUV effectively means that if you put in an order for the Model X today, the order won’t be fulfilled until 2016.
As it stand today, it’s believed that Tesla already has upwards of 24,000 Model X reservations. In contrast, Tesla’s Model S during the same point in its own production schedule had approximately 12,000 reservations. This sizable boost in demand can likely be attributed to a few factors. First, the Tesla brand, on account of the successful Model S, is much more widely known today than it was in 2012.
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Second, Tesla’s supercharger network is much more extensive than it was even 12 months ago. Third, an SUV, for many consumers, is much more appealing and practical than a sedan.
Looking ahead, Tesla will be operating at full throttle over the next few months. In addition to the impending Model X release, Tesla will continue building out its Gigafactory in Nevada. What’s more, Tesla also indicated yesterday that it finally plans to unveil the more pocketbook-friendly Model 3 in early 2016 ahead of a release window in late 2017.
